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Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York City in January of 2012. Photocredit: GettyGetty

While it was clear that bookstores were having a good fall once we hit the holiday months, the success of the last third of the year is now more abundantly clear: Barnes & Noble increased its comparable store sales between Black Friday and New Year's Day by 4.0% over the same period in 2017, and from October 28 (the very beginning of the holiday season, and the beginning of this year's Q3) to December 29 by 1.3%.

Important to note, however, is that, amidst this announcement, B&N adjusted its earnings guidance down by 10%, which the company says is due to the cost of heavy advertising and promotions (including markdowns) during the holidays that got it all of those sales. The cost of competing with Amazon is, clearly, high.